Tommy Benefield

Kia ora,

Thanks for checking out my listing! I offer counselling, therapy, supervision, and coaching. These services are available both kanohi ki te kanohi (in-person) or via ZOOM.

I am a DAPAANZ registered addictions counsellor who also has three years post-grad psychotherapy training. I have 20 years of client-centred counselling, therapy and coaching experience and offer safe, confidential support for people with a range of well-being needs.

I am a general therapist and also have a specialty focus in the areas of anxiety, addictions, plant medicine integration, and ethical non-monogamy relationships i.e. polyamory, relationship anarchy etc. I offer a trauma-informed, strengths-based therapeutic practice.

Counselling and Therapy
I became an addictions counsellor in 2003 through an American institute which provided training to those who had their own life experience of addiction and recovery.

For five years I worked with young people as a Certified Addictions Counsellor with full DAPAANZ registration. I continued youth addictions work for the following three years while I retrained in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy.

After I completed my psychotherapy training I moved into a senior counsellor role within a clinical mental health team within a hospital environment providing one on one therapy and group work to people with severe mental health and / or addictions issues.

During this time I also began my private practice which involved one on one therapy and group work for people graduating from a private residential addictions facility in Auckland.

After 12 years of delivering clinical work in the DHB and NGO sector I chose to move into managing mental health services as well as my private practice.

Over the last five years I have had a specific focus on supporting people integrate  plant medicine, psychedelic, or spiritual experiences into their daily lives. Using a combination of traditional therapeutic approaches in combination with more esoteric or shamanic approaches to talking therapies.

I have also developed a specific interest and skill set working with individuals or couples who choose – or are considering exploring – unique relationship styles such as relationship anarchy, polyamory etc.

Supervision
I am a fully qualified counselling and talking therapies supervisor and am registered as an approved DAPPANZ supervisor. I love working with both trainees and practicing counsellors and therapists to support them with their mahi and with the impact their mahi has on them as an individual.

Addictions support
I have worked as an addictions specialist for 20 years. Prior to that for seven years I had supported dozens of people seeking recovery from addiction on a voluntary basis as a mentor within the recovery community.

My own experience of overcoming addiction and creating a beautiful life for myself informs my work as an addictions therapist but I also have significant training both nationally and internationally in addictions.

I take a strengths-based approach offering no judgment just support. No one chooses addiction, but if you want to choose something new, I will work with you to achieve what you do want.

Plant Medicine Integration
Psychedelic-Assisted-Therapy has been having a huge resurgence internationally and is providing incredible results and healing for people. This comes as no surprise to many people and especially not to those indigenous cultures who have been using psychedelic plants as medicines for millennia.

In Aotearoa at present Psychedelic-Assisted-Therapy is illegal. This means in order to maintain our practicing certificates and abide by our professional code of ethics, all counsellors and therapists practicing here can offer currently is plant medicine or psychedelic integration work.

This means working with people after or before they have had psychedelic or shamanic experiences to make sense of those experiences and to maximise those experiences in order to meaningfully integrate them in to their daily lives.

The mystical and complex world revealed to us when we take these medicines can be incredibly healing and beneficial but it can also be scary and isolating. Sometimes having an understanding professional to help you unpack those experiences and to help you find the most valuable meaning from them can make a huge difference to how you feel about those experiences and the benefits they can offer.

Ethical Non-Monogamy couples or one on one support
For years I would see friends and family in my various communities asking if anyone knew a therapist who specialised in working with couples in non-monogamous relationships. I didn’t know anyone and certainly didn’t consider myself an expert in this field.

After time however when talking through the needs or wants of these friends it became evident that the first thing they wanted was someone who simply knew about those relationship structures, didn’t judge them as unethical or unhealthy, and wouldn’t try to talk them out of them.  The second thing they wanted – if possible – was someone who understood how those relationships worked and functioned and had insight into the unique dynamics and challenges that arise from these relational structures.

At this point I realised with my own life experience mixed with my training and experience as a therapist working with individuals, couples and whānau dynamics that, while I may not have a PHD in this field, I am uniquely placed to support people navigating these relationship containers, cultures, and lifestyles, or wanting to explore those choices.

I celebrate diversity in gender, sexuality and in relationship styles and love working with people embracing, or considering exploring, unique relationship structures and paradigms.